City to Give More to its Public Attorneys

Some staffers in the Santa Monica City Attorney's office will get 3 percent salary bumps but lose performance bonuses under new bargaining contracts up for City Council approval Tuesday night.

In the place of performance bonuses—which ranged between 1 and 10 percent—the base salaries of employees would increase by 3.8 percent.

The new memorandum of understanding would affect 83 employees—or about 4.5 percent of the work force at —represented by the three separate bargaining units, the Management Team Associates, Public Attorneys Legal Support Staff Union and the Public Attorneys Union.

The salary boosts are considered cost of living adjustments. They are estimated to cost the city an additional $565,000 this fiscal year.

"This will provide parity with the increases provided to other employee groups who previously entered into multi-year agreements," Human Resources Director Donna C. Peter wrote in a report to the City Council.

The three groups' most recent memorandums were one-year contracts that expired June 30. The proposed agreement would expire July 1, 2015 for MTA employees and in the following year for PAU and PALSSU.

The city's human resources department is also proposing the same change to the performance bonus section of its executive pay plan contract with 18 department heads and other at-will employees who receive certain benefits as part of their separate labor agreements.

Though the performance bonuses would be wiped out, the MTA, PAU, PALSSU and executive pay plan employees would receive 3.8 percent raises based on their base salaries effective July 1, 2012.

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Additionally, a provision would be added to all three agreements and to the Executive Pay Plan, that gives employees the option to cash out up to 40 hours of vacation each year, with some restrictions.

In her report, Peter wrote the new provision "helps to reduce accrued vacation balances which have a higher cost when paid out to employees when they leave employment with the city."

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